The present invention relates to terminal pin mountings and, more particularly, to an arrangement for mounting a terminal pin to a printed wiring board while at the same time establishing electrical connection between the terminal pin and a conductor formed on the printed wiring board.
Terminal pin mounting arrangments are very well known to those skilled in the art. One type is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,750 issued Feb. 27, 1973, to Eugene H. Sayers which teaches an electrical connector having a tin plated female terminal having a body portion adapted to be connected to a printed wiring conductor and an elongated ferrule portion which is C-shaped in cross-section. A male terminal is also included and is of generally cylindrical shape having a knurled shank portion with apices of the individual knurls lying on a circumscribed diameter which is greater than the internal diameter of the C-shaped ferrule portion of the female terminal. The male terminal is connected to the female terminal by intersecting the same into the ferrule portion which causes the C-shaped ferrule portion to radially expand and the knurls on the shank portion to plasticly be formed and cold weld to the female portion to thus electrically connect the two terminal portions. Such an arrangement while operating generally satisfactorily causes damage to both terminal portions, which damage will eventually render electrical connection between the two terminal portions unreliable.
Another method of establishing electrical connection is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,385 issued Mar. 11, 1975, to Emik Avakian et al. and teaches an interconnection system including resilient conductive elements embedded in a board. The board includes a plurality of ridges with the elements uniformly spaced along the ridges and with the ridges intersected by notches to receive wires, the ends of which are embedded in the resilient conductive elements with the wires positioned between the ridges and below the top surface of the board. Such an arrangement while operating generally satisfactorily will, with repeated insertions of the wires into the conductive elements, cause the conductive elastomer to be pierced by many holes thereby reducing the elastomeric characteristic and the reliability of the electrical connection.
Finally, several methods have been developed for establishing electrical connection to a printed wiring board utilizing a plated through hole formed therein. In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,143 issued Apr. 12, 1977, to Robert Gordon Knowles; U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,326 issued Jan. 3, 1978, to Charles Michael Lovendusky; U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,982 issued Feb. 5, 1980, to Robert F. Cobaugh et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,699 issued June 23, 1981, to Kenneth J. Keim all teach electrical connection to a printed wiring board conductor through a plated through hole via a terminal of metallic material including a spring line section which section engages in gas-tight relationship the wall of the plate through hole. Such arrangements while operating generally satisfactorily all cause damage to the plated through hole which, with repeated insertions, will render the associated electrical connection unreliable.